


into something rich and strange

by fiones



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Body Horror, M/M, Mild Blood, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:35:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21528421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiones/pseuds/fiones
Summary: “Riku,” he whispered, “you have starlight in your hair.”
Relationships: Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 50
Collections: Cross the Line: a soriku zine





	into something rich and strange

**Author's Note:**

> this was written for the soriku 'cross the line' zine. the original concept was going to be much longer but i lost steam pretty quickly, unfortunately, so this is all i got. i'm still happy with it, though, and i'm happy to have had it included in such an awesome zine with so many other talented writers and artists!

The first sensation Sora felt as he drifted back into consciousness was panic. An unbridled fear that screamed in the back of his skull for him to get up, to run and help. To fix whatever it was that had gone wrong.    
  
The second sensation, as Sora struggled to open his eyes and the world hazily came into view, was anger. The type of anger he rarely ever felt, the kind that burned through his entire body, that made him vibrate out of his skin as if his physical form couldn’t hold all that rage in. And at first, as he willed his body to move and managed to push himself up from where he’d been thrown on the ground, Sora couldn’t even recall why he felt either of these feelings. But as his vision began to clear, so did his memory.   
  
Those memories made his blood run cold.   
  
He hastily pushed himself to his feet, feeling bruised and sore but otherwise alright. He’d been thrown several feet by the sudden burst of energy, an energy he could still feel humming through the air, tingling at his skin. It had come from Riku. He could see it all play out before him like watching a movie. The two of them, here in the Land of Departure where they’d spent most of their time since their return from Shibuya, up at dawn to spar. Sora didn’t sleep well anymore and was always up early, no matter how tired he was. He was too afraid to sleep, for fear of what his dreams might hold. For fear that he wouldn’t wake up, at least not in this world.   
  
Riku had, of course, adjusted his own sleeping schedule to match Sora’s. If Sora was awake, so was Riku, always dutifully at Sora’s side whenever he needed it. Whether it was to talk, or joke around, to train, or just race around like when they were kids, Riku was there. Always.   
  
Always at his side, and Sora somehow hadn’t seen that something was off.    
  
He certainly saw it now.   
  
There, in the center of the courtyard where they’d been training was a large white cocoon, floating a few inches off the ground. There were red streaks across it, dripping down to form a small pool just beneath it.   
  
  
_ Blood _ , Sora thought, his mind numb as he took in the sight before him.  _ That’s Riku’s blood. _  
  
  


He’d managed to land a blow on Riku, one that he should normally have managed to deflect, but just as Riku had begun to raise Braveheart to counter Sora’s attack, his entire body had gone rigid, his eyes wide. He didn’t even seem to feel the strike from Sora’s Keyblade, not even flinching as it hit his shoulder. Before Sora could start apologizing or asking what was wrong, Riku had dropped Braveheart and began to back up, his whole body shaking. That’s when Sora noticed the sparks of lightning crackling over Riku’s skin. Only a few seconds later, Riku’s entire body was engulfed in a blinding light that contracted around him and then exploded outwards. That was what had thrown Sora nearly the full length of the courtyard. 

  
It was hard to tell how long he had been unconscious. The sun seemed higher in the sky, its warm rays beating down on Sora as he stumbled back to where Riku had been. To where the cocoon was. Except that the closer he got, the more clear it became that the cocoon wasn’t exactly that. It was made of feathers. Large, white feathers. They formed what appeared to be two enormous wings that were wrapped around each other. It was hard to tell where they were protruding from as they overlapped each other. But one area towards the back was significantly more soaked in blood than the rest.   
  
_They came out of his back_. Sora hadn’t seen it happen, but the thought sprung into his mind and he knew without question that it was true. _They burst out of his back. They’re wrapped around him. He’s in there now, they’re keeping him in._  
  


The thought gave way to another hysteric bout of fear and Sora closed the remaining distance with speed. He could feel the energy rolling off Riku in waves, could still see the lightning dancing over the feathers, leaving trails of glowing light in their wake. But none of that mattered, not in the face of the fact that Sora’s very best friend was currently inside this strange shell of feathers. When he reached it, he immediately reached out to grab the wings and felt a shock course through him. It was somewhat painful but he pushed down the instinct to pull away and instead began to try to force his way through. To pull Riku out.   
  
Much to his surprise and frustrating, the feathers - soft as they looked - where firm and unmoving. No matter how he tugged and clawed, no matter how he banged his fist against them, the wings held strong and did not relinquish under his onslaught. They remained tense, and Sora could even feel the muscles moving beneath the feathers. With those muscles and the sheer size of the wings, Sora was vaguely aware that they were probably enough to actually give Riku flight. The idea would’ve once been the coolest thing ever, would’ve filled Sora with uncontained excitement. Now they were just an obstacle he couldn’t surpass. Even when he summoned his Keyblade and took several hard swings at the wings, not even when he began to yell Riku’s name until his voice was raw with hurt. Still the wings wrapped around Riku did not yield.    
  
The adrenaline that had been building up in Sora’s system suddenly drained and he found himself collapsing to his knees, hunched over and breathing heavily. His thoughts drifted down the past few weeks since his return from Shibuya, replaying every moment he’d spent with Riku, searching for some sign to explain what had happened.   
  
And there was something, now that he remembered it, something he’d largely brushed off. He had noticed Riku seemed to always be uncomfortable, subtly shifting around whenever he was sitting down, always scratching at his wrists or his neck under his collar. Sora had commented on it, once, and Riku had just smiled reassuringly back at him and said, “It’s fine, really. I think it’s just a side-effect of… of what happened at the Keyblade Graveyard. I may not remember it, but it makes sense that it’d still affect me, I guess. I just need time to readjust, I think. Don’t worry about it.”   
  
And like an idiot, Sora had believed him and put his worry out of mind.    
  
Distantly, Sora could hear voices around him as Aqua, Terra, and Ventus arrived. They were panicked, shouting for Sora, and he felt hands on his shoulders as Ventus crouched down in front of him and tried to shake him back to reality. But Sora was so very far away from himself, a loud buzzing in his ears drowning out everything around him as he tried, desperately, to cast his mind back and finally remember what they’d all forgotten.   
  
  
  
Days later, Sora had still been unable to remember and Riku had still not woken up.   
  
Their friends had taken turns watching over Riku, bouncing ideas off each other as they waited, trying to come up with new ideas to force Riku out of his strange stasis. Nothing worked, and even when Yen Sid and Merlin were called to examine the situation, neither of them had a solution to offer.   
  
Sora, for his part, searched for answers off-world. His first stop was the Keyblade Graveyard, hoping that simply being there would be enough to spark something in his memory but all he got were distant sounds and shadows that slipped away the moment he tried to focus on them. He’d left more frustrated than he’d arrived. From there, he’d jumped around from one world to another. Some of his friends offered comfort, others encouragement. None of them offered answers.   
  
The closest he came was on his trip to Olympus. The Realm of the Gods had called to him much as the Keyblade Graveyard did. He knew, somehow, that this world in particular was important to him, and to Riku, but couldn’t piece together why or how. As far as he could remember, Riku had never been to this world at all, but when Sora first walked through the pearly gates atop Mount Olympus, he was hit with the immediate and overwhelming feeling that, yes, they’d been here together before.    
  
“I think we died,” he’d said to Hercules, his voice quiet. “Well, no, I know we did, somehow, but I don’t remember what actually happened. But I just have this feeling it’s all connected. I just… I just don’t know how.”   
  
Hercules had been silent for a moment as he considered this. “Sora, I don’t know what happened to you guys, and I don’t know this Riku at all, but… I do know that sometimes death isn’t exactly the ending. Sometimes it can be an awakening, a new beginning.”   
  
Sora frowned at that, folding his arms over his chest as he stared up at his friend. “And how’s that?”   
  
The god awkwardly rubbed at the back of his neck, a slight pink tint creeping onto his cheeks. “Well, it happened to me, remember? I, uh, I technically died to save Meg from the Underworld. It was a choice I made to give my own life for hers, and somehow that was enough to make a miracle happen. I was mortal before that, and when I died I was reborn as a true god. It wasn’t intentional, I wasn’t looking for a way to get those powers, all I cared about was Meg.”   
  
“You wanted to save her with all your heart,” Sora cut in, his brows creased as he considered Herc’s words.   
  
Herc smiled widely and nodded. “That’s right. With all my heart.”

  
  
  
Those words followed Sora as he made his way back home. They settled in his heart with a heavy weight he couldn’t shake, despite him feeling that he really hadn’t gotten any concrete answers. All he had were some possibilities, some ideas of what might’ve happened, what might still be happening, but nothing clear cut that he could actually do anything about. And so he’d decided to go back to the Land of Departure and regroup with the others.    
  
He was disappointed (but not terribly surprised) to find that the others hadn’t come up with anything in his absence. 

  
“You’re not giving me anything to work with here,” he told Riku, from his position sitting on the ground with his back leaned against the solid cocoon of wings. The blood had been cleaned, leaving the wings a pristine white that seemed to glow even at night, brighter than the moon in the evening light. “You could’ve left me something, some kind of clue. How am I supposed to help you if I don’t know what’s wrong?”   
  
No response.   
  
Sora sat in silence for several minutes before he spoke again, his voice quiet and laced with sadness. “You shouldn’t hide things like this. You think you’re helping, that you don’t want to burden others with your problems, but who do you think suffers most when things like this happens? We’re friends. We’re supposed to help each other. I told you that before, that you can lean on me if you need to. You don’t have to do everything by yourself.”   
  
Still no response.   
  
“Herc said that he died to save Meg, and that sacrifice gave him the powers of a god. But he already had those powers, kinda, since his parents were gods. So it was more like he was reclaiming something that was already his, I think. So I don’t know how you could’ve gotten these powers, unless maybe you had them already? Which, I guess wouldn’t be the craziest thing to have happened. You don’t know much about your dad, right? Maybe he was a god or something. Herc said one of his uncles is a god of the sea, and your dad was a fisherman, so maybe… but no, that doesn’t make sense. Herc’s from a whole ‘nother world. But maybe there’s gods in our world and we just don’t know about it?”   
  
Again, no response. Sora sighed heavily and slumped back. He was so, so tired, down to his bones. He couldn’t remember ever feeling so exhausted before, not even after…

  
“The Graveyard, then. That’s where things changed, right? So what happened there, Riku? Because I don’t remember, not really. I know that we all died somehow, and I had to save everyone, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me how it all worked out. But I have… I have a hard time accepting that it happened because I just… I can’t imagine you dying, you know? You’ve always been so strong, so invincible to me. And I know that’s not true, I know you’re human like the rest of us, but knowing it’s true and actually seeing it are two different things. But since I don’t remember seeing it, it’s hard to believe that it was real. But I guess it was. And I just keep wondering, why? How? How did it happen, how could something have actually killed you? You, of all people!”  
  
He sighed again, running his hand through his hair in frustration.  
  
“You’ve really left me hangin’ here, Riku. You better have a real good explanation for this when you wake up, or you’re gonna wish you were knocked out for a whole year. See if I don’t.”  
  
With that threat hanging between them, Sora began to drift off to sleep, sinking back into the wall of feathers that seemed to soften under his weight. And as he slept, he dreamt of a tide of Heartless washing over him, of it splitting to two flowing pillars of darkness on either side of him with one brilliant point of light before him, shielding him from the tide’s full force.  
  
In the back of his mind, Sora heard a familiar voice whispering.  
  
_I wanted to protect you with all my heart. It was you. Always you._  
  
  
  
Somewhere, in the empty darkness between worlds, a dim light burst into a radiant flame. Within it, a new power stirred.  
  
  
  
In the Land of Departure, Sora woke with the dawn to find himself no longer cushioned by white feathers but instead was leaning back against Riku’s solid chest. He blinked up at his best friend’s soft smile, tears welling up in Riku’s green eyes, his silver hair now luminescent.  
  
“Riku,” he whispered, “you have starlight in your hair.”  
  
His friend’s smile widened and he let out a watery laugh. “Don’t be such a sap,” he said, to which Sora only grinned.  
  
  
  
  
Later, when Sora was more awake, more sure that the Riku he was looking up at was real and not part of his dream, he’d berate Riku endlessly for worrying him so much, and Riku would struggle to explain why he’d kept these changes from his best friend. Together, they’d learn the reach of Riku’s new abilities, his ascension. They would never fully understand what had happened, or why, though Sora had his suspicions. He didn’t know much about love, after all, but he was beginning to learn. And eventually, they would remember. Eventually, they’d find their truth.  
  
But for now they were content to sit together under the morning light, Sora’s head in Riku’s lap, twin smiles on their faces, with Riku’s six great wings spread wide above them.   


**-fin**


End file.
